Any throwers in Ontario, Canada? 🍁

Yo-Yo Contests, Clubs, and Events
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Just curious to know who’s out there and to connect with throwers who are more local to me (you don’t have to disclose exactly where you live or if you’re more comfortable, feel free to PM me!)

About myself: I grew up in Mississauga, went to University of Guelph for 11 years (BSc + PhD) and now live near Woodstock. I am 30, married and expecting a baby boy any day now. :baby:

I LOVED throwing a Yomega Fireball as a kid and one day in 2017 (while procrastinating writing my thesis) I came across modern yo-yos online and fell in love with the design intricacy and have been obsessed ever since. I particularly like modern unresponsive yo-yos but I’m dabbling with 4a, wooden fixies and looking to try responsive freehand when the Pop Art drops. :blush:

I am also into making yoyo accessories - I spin my own nylon strings and also design various carrying solutions like the Bear Hug: FS: The Bear Hug: SOLD OUT FOR NOW - A handmade tailor-fit holster for the Ti-Vayder yoyo (fits most modern yoyos)

Would love to connect with other throwers in my area so please feel free to reach out.

-Alex

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I’m in the GTA, Ontario.
Just started yo-yoing a month ago :sweat_smile:
Also looking forward to RCS Pop Art👍

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Congrats! We’re expecting a boy any day too! Actually thought Sunday was the day, spent a couple hours at the hospital because contractions were so close, but they suggested we head home and wait til they were more intense. Tomorrow (6/24) is his due date.

Best wishes to you and your wife!

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Thanks @AaronW! Haha that’s pretty nerve wracking. Our due date was the 20th, and still no sign yet.
Best of luck to you and your family too! I hope all goes well for you.:crossed_fingers:

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That’s awesome! Welcome to this wonderful/addictive world. :heart::yo-yo:

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I am in Eastern Ontario–kind of far from Woodstock and not that far from the GTA.

Just started Zero Gravity Yoyos and our first release is coming this Sunday–this is our instagram – https://www.instagram.com/zerogravityreturntops/

Wishing you all the very best with the safe arrival of your new baby boy!

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Thanks so much @jeduardo! That’s awesome and really exciting! I’ve seen your previous posts on the Winglet but didn’t realize that you were in Ontario! The Winglet looks cool, I hope the launch goes well. I’m intrigued by the design but not currently budgeted for a new yoyo so we will see down the line. Ps: The charcoal grey is a good choice!

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Thanks @Xanadu. Stay tuned as we will have excellent b-grades down the road (I would even call them -A grades rather than B-grades) which will be more budget friendly.

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Excellent GIF
I do love me some B-grades… :slight_smile:

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Hey Alex, nice to meet you and thanks for saying hey and for the information. I am living in Ottawa now, but I went to YoYoToronto Meetings when I was there from 2018-2020. They will hopefully be starting up again after we get the green light to have group meetings again.

I actually also went to the University of Guelph for 4 years (2006-2010) and completed a Ph.D. as well, in Environmental Biology, so I think we would have a lot to talk about LOL. I read your business idea of providing PCR primer and targeting design, I think that is a great idea and an emerging field and service that is and will be needed.

For example, I was surprised to find so little RT-PCR (Reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction) RNA sequencing used for identifying the presence of COVID-19 vs. antibody tests. I currently work for Stericycle, a hazardous and biohazardous waste company in Ontario, and the first COVID-19 test kits (as written on the MSDS) in March said they were antibody tests, but never really specified if the targeted antibodies were certainly released due to COVID exposure. You could obtain the sequence online from BlastX (https://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi?LINK_LOC=blasthome&PAGE_TYPE=BlastSearch&PROGRAM=blastx), identify which antibody the human creates for it (I imagine), then create the test, then distribute them to hospitals. Did this all happen within one month? I’m not certain.

Getting PCR machines for DNA and RNA sequencing into the hands of hospitals and clinics would drastically improve accuracy of COVID tests, and would reduce economic consequences of shutting down areas with potentially high false positives. There is definitely an economic tradeoff model that would convince governments to purchase these machines, and distributing them is a big future market in my opinion.

I also did some DNA Barcoding work at the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario at U of Guelph, targeting rbcL and matK genes that are often unique across species and thereby used for species identification, and short to code (high accuracy for animals, less for plants). I worked a bit with Prof. Steven Newmaster at BIO, and Prof. Madhur Anand was my supervisor out of the Edmund Bovey Building. I focused more on effects of climate change (past 11,000 years) and clear-cut farming and land abandonment on forest ecology in Canada, Brazil, and across North and South America. I also like how you put your Research Gate as your link, great idea and very informative. Since you put your information out there, here is one work of mine (open-access) that I had actually shared previously on here if you’re interested to have a better understanding of what I work on, cheers: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0011543

Good idea saying hey and where you’re from and your info. And also did you know that André Boulay studied neurobiology? :slight_smile:

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Mark, this is a super cool post! Thanks for reaching out! My baby :baby:t2: was born yesterday evening and we are currently at the hospital - I am very sleep deprived right now. But happy! I will revisit your thoughts and comments later and get back to you (if it slips my mind, feel free to pm me later on because I would enjoy talking with you). I am thoroughly enjoying how two of my passions have crossed paths right here. Have a wonderful weekend!

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I live in Ottawa, Ontario.

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Congrats! Ours was early Thursday morning :grin:

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Congrats @Xanadu and @AaronW! That’s amazing news!!

That’s also amazing news @Cmac that you live in Ottawa! Very cool. I don’t know of any clubs here currently unfortunately. Yoperation in Montreal back in the day at Le Valet d’Coeur game shop on St. Denis was a great time. Let me know if there’s a club in town :+1:

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Happy Canada Day! :canada:

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Likewise :beers:

Also, I found a 4-minute video that summarizes my long-winded post above, if you’re interested to see it. It is narrated by Prof. Steven Newmaster. I am a visual learner so these videos are very informative for me.

At the 2-minute mark in the video they show the bCUBE, a 10 cm tabletop box that sequences DNA and RNA. It was used recently for COVID surface testing. Anyways for your interest :+1:

VCUBE
VCUBE1464×826 178 KB

VCUBEloadingtray
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VCUBEloadingtraybeingloaded
VCUBEloadingtraybeingloaded1464×750 170 KB

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Getting him started early! :yo-yo::baby:t2:

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IMG_57753024×4032 2.32 MB

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Im out here in the GTA, Thornhill

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I’m based in Toronto too. Started yoyoing again when I found my old Turbo Bumble Bee last year. One thing led to another, and now I’m hoping to start a yoyo company one day.

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Hello Ontarians!! I am in Ottawa. 38 years old. About 6 weeks back into the hobby (after a 15 year break) with a rapidly growing collection of unresponsive throws. Purely focussed on 1a learning right now and am moving along steadily.

I don’t know anybody else who throws right now, been trying to get my friends to give it a try but no luck yet. Ottawa needs a yoyo club!! There is a Facebook group but it looks like it never took off.

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